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The Ozarks on the world wide web!
By Ed Crabtree
It has often been
said that the most promising application of the Internet is the medium’s
ability to share data between users, instantaneously in real time, over
great distances and even around the world.
Users of the Internet have discovered that with simple software
programs that they can create and share with the world online photo
albums with family pictures, or even electronic versions of books and
magazines such as The Message Tree. The concept that anyone can self
publish, at virtually no expense is indeed an exciting prospect. The budding webmaster can build a web
site that is as simple as a single page of photos of the kids to share
with family or friends or as complex as one with hundreds of pages consisting
of a combination of text and illustrations. We view this ability as an extremely important asset for
those seeking to preserve and disseminate valuable historic and
culturally important materials and information.
Since its conception just over two years ago, your “The
Message Tree” e-zine has been “hit” or viewed just over one
hundred and seven thousand times, by readers in all fifty states and a
dozen foreign lands and we have been told by several of our readers that
the web site is one of the most phenomenal web sites that they have ever
discovered, but in all due modesty we must point out that there are other
sites, constructed by just pain people for the enlightenment of other
others and not for commercial gain.
Lets take a look of a few of them and their importance to historic
and cultural preservation of our dear Ozarks.
A third generation native of San Diego, Gerry Chudleig, is the
creator of http://www.hbw.addr.com/
, which is a very extensive web site dedicated to educating the world on
the works of Harold Bell Wright as well as a gallery for a remarkable
collection of photos and postcards by George Hall, who photographed
hundreds of scenes throughout early day Taney and Stone Counties. (See Sidebar)
Gerry shared the following with us;
A friend told me about Harold Bell Wright in
1988, and loaned me a copy of The Calling of Dan Matthews. For several
years we had read and discussed the fiction of C. S. Lewis, but had
pretty well exhausted his stories. As my friend says, after
that I just went crazy, collecting Wright books, photos and letters, and
gathering information. I was amazed to see how little information about
Wright was available, and decided I could make a contribution. In 1990 I
self-published a little paperback collectors' guide, "Harold
Bell Wright's Books and Collectibles. I printed enlarged editions in 1992
and 1997. By the late 1990's I decided it was time to move on to
other hobbies, and sold most of my collection (to buy a house). That was
when I became interested in learning to create websites. As soon as I
figured out how to get space on the web and how to create a page, I
realized that I needed something to put on the website, some content,
something to practice with. And there it was on my shelf, my little HBW
book. So I started creating pages and adding photos. And then I added
more and more and more. The website took on a life of its own, people
started writing to me (like you did) and sending me photos, and there I
was, back in the middle of HBW and the Ozarks again. It is a lot of fun,
and I now suppose I will keep doing it as long as I can type on this
keyboard (I am 59, so I should have several good years yet).
On thing I had not expected is the degree to which the
website has become a community project. In the early 1990's several of us
HBW postcard collectors discussed how nice it would be if we could find a
place where we could display all our cards together. What a breathtaking
and informative display that would be. Well, the web provides us the
opportunity to do that. I try to always give credit to whoever sends me a
photo, so you can easily see who the contributors are.
The thing about the
website that has amazed me the most is the way it
draws surprising new information. A university student in
Armenia sent me information about Hovsep Pushman, an artist Wright met in
Riverside, CA. One of his photos hangs in the HBW museum in Branson,
along with Wright's poem about that painting. Two people who saw the
Barbara Worth Hotel in El Centro burn to the ground described the event,
and one sent a video which I added to the site. Kelly Kimble wrote from
Branson and told me all about the stamps of HBW's signature that he
and his family put inside hundreds of thousands of copies of The
Shepherd of the Hills, a man making a documentary about the Baldknobbers
sent info, and other people responded to his information with more.
Historian and Archeologists from North Central Nevada recently sent
information and photos about the 1926 production of the movie "the
Winning of Barbara Worth." John Fullerton recently sent more
information than I knew existed regarding Garber. The son of the owner of
the Barbara Worth Cafe in Jacumba, sent me his recollections of the
history of the cafe, and so on.
Anyone interested in Harold Bell
Wright and the Shepherd Of The Hills, as well as the
photographic work of George Hall, should take time to check
out Gerry’s website.
Another good site with plenty of antique
photos depicting life in the central Ozarks has been compiled by Rick
Stokes and can be found at; http://www.boaz1910.com/
Rick as you might recall was kind
enough to write an article for The Message Tree last year,
sharing with us how his step great grand father, Calvin Davis, drove his
wagon carrying his photographic darkroom throughout the Clever, Boaz, and
Nixa areas of Christian County photographing every day life in that area
a hundred or so years ago. As
with many photographers of his day, Mr. Davis used glass plate negatives,
and Rick has inherited this very important collection of work.
Since Rick provided us with his
article a year ago, a clipping from the June 5, 1927 issue of the Springfield
Republican newspaper has surfaced, detailing how that Mr. Davis was also
the engineer of the first steam locomotive to enter Springfield in 1869.
Rick also has devoted a portion of
his website to his uncle, Uriel Stokes, who was the step-grandson of
Calvin Davis. Instead of a camera Uriel, used the written word to paint
images of the Ozarks and the people who lived among its rolling
hills. These essays provide A
wonderful window through which to view the typical day-to-day life of our
Ozark ancestors of a century past, a treat you must sample.
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These
people are my people. Their joys and triumphs I have shared. Their
sorrows and disappointments have been an acute pain in my own heart.
Their stories are my stories. Uriel
Stokes from
The Fields of Boaz
http://www.boaz1910.com/
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Those of you that are into
genealogical research are probably familiar with the e-mail discussion
groups provided as a service by Roots Web.Com (see; http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/usa/MO/
) through which you can join e-mail discussion lists and by sending one
e-mail to the service, the service then in turn sends out the message to
everyone on that particular list.
So if you are exploring the roots of a particular surname you can
join a list that is specific to a particular region. For instance the link above will take
you to a page where you can subscribe to lists that discuss family
histories in each specific county of Missouri. We subscribe to the lists for most of the counties of south
central and watch for interesting tidbits of history that might be
discussed.
Usually the messages on these lists
read like who begat who, and who was ‘kin to who, rather boring stuff
unless you happen to be related to one of the surnames being
discussed. However an interesting
thing happened this past week on the list for Stone County Missouri
researchers, when the members spontaneously started sharing stories of
fond remembrances and recollections of life in these old Ozarks hills, as
they, themselves remembered life to be, or as it was told to them by
their parents and grand parents.
To those who care about such
culturally significant pearls of history, this was occurrence was
absolutely fantastic. The
wonderful stories and the “sayings” of what is a rapidly disappearing
culture, would have made any student of history or heritage feel like
they had discovered a lost gold mine!
This important event was not lost, but however sparked another
significant web site when a member of the group, Robin Biddle took time
to preserve these gems on her web pages which are dedicated to the study
and preservation of Stone County history and genealogy.
The title of one web page, “Haint
whatcha sez jes howya sez it”
pretty much sums it up as the page is a collection of sayings as
used by the “Old Timers” of the region. (see;
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~biddle/sayings.html
“Hollerin' in the Hollers”,
A collection of Stories by those who remember bygone days is another
wonderful web page that Robin is currently building upon.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~biddle/stories.html
Both of these sites will no doubt become valuable assets to
those researching the culture and heritage of the hill people of south
central Missouri as well as web pages that will become dear to the hearts
of those of us that as Uriel Stokes wrote, “These people are my
people…. their stories are my stories…….”
I think Gerry Chudleigh summed it up best when
he said that
” It is clear to me that the web
not only contains thousands of time more information than any
encyclopedia could print, it is also self-generating.”
As more and more people like Robin,
Gerry, and Rick create web pages that preserve our history and culture,
our entire society will become more enriched, as unlike an encyclopedia,
no material gets deleted by an editor for lack of space, and with several
authors creating material on the same subject, we are exposed to a
variety of differing viewpoints, giving us a more well rounded
perspective on the particular subject.
We hope that you will take time to
check out the pages created by this trio of wonderful people who love the
Ozarks and it’s people, and perhaps you too will feel compelled to take
up the craft of creating web pages, and share with the world the rich
history and heritage that you have.
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